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The 76-year-old actor, comedian, author and former Jell-O pitchman is appearing at Fallsview Casino on Sept. 29 and 30 and it’s likely that many in the audience will be there because of his signature TV series like I Spy and The Cosby Show.

But Cosby is also a humanitarian, activist and shrewd observer of the world around him, a fact that loomed again on Sept. 14 when an interview with CNN’s Don Lemongrabbed headlines around the continent.

Cosby went after what he called “no-groes,” blacks who deny anything bad in the world, preferring to think the status quo is just dandy.

Reached by phone in his western Massachusetts home, Cosby was delighted to hear about the furor his words had continued to cause and said it was the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech that got him thinking that way.

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“I don’t want these people, these no-groes, to be confused with the people who fought, the people who took the blows, whether they were physical or delivered verbally, the people who were pushed into the back rooms and made to suffer silently.

“Those people are the ones who helped us grow, because progress only happens when you admit there is a wrong and try to right it,” he said.

Cosby isn’t talking anything revolutionary, but he is pointing a finger at the continually declining quality of family life in our society, especially in the black community.

“President Obama gave a speech to the black people about the necessity of the community strengthening itself, making sure that the home life is strong and accepting the importance of education. It was what needed to be said, but there were still some black people, like (Def Jam Records co-founder) Russell Simmons, who said that it wasn’t the president’s business to talk like that. But I disagree.

“The way to win is to develop love within the home. That’s where the revolution has to start. Young men and women are still finding themselves and anxious to be accepted. We are all anxious to be accepted. But if you have a strong mother and father who tell you that you don’t have to dress a crazy way, or hang out with people who are looking for trouble in order to be loved and accepted, then half the battle is over.”

If you’re a fan of Cosby’s work, you’ll know he’s speaking from experience.

Born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1937, he was the son of a maid and a sailor who spent many of the formative years of Cosby’s childhood serving abroad in the Second World War.

Cosby was a popular guy, a star athlete who worked a variety of jobs to help his mother put food on the table. But something was missing and that was academic endeavour.

“It was hard for me, being in school. And nobody was there to tell me how important it was.”

So when he failed Grade 10, he dropped out of school instead of going through the shame of repeating a grade. Soon he found himself in the navy and gradually realized what a mistake he had made.

“Education happens to be something that all people, all cultures, need to embrace. Math, science, the words of the world. To be able to speak and be able to have clarity and to be able to think. Those are the greatest of gifts.”

Cosby completed his high school equivalency diploma by mail while still in the service and, on his discharge, got a track and field scholarship to Temple University.

But his joy at that achievement was mitigated by the discovery that his less-than-stellar language skills had finally come home to roost.

“I was 23 years old, a freshman at university and there I was, on the first day, sitting in a remedial English class. I was so ashamed I almost got up and left, but somehow I knew inside that if I ran away from this, I would hate myself forever.”

So he stayed. And learned how to speak and write with that inimitable voice the world has come to love. And it wasn’t too long before the turning point.

“The professor walked into the class one day. I forget his name, which is so terrible, because he’s the one who changed my life. He pulled out a paper I had written, read it to the class and then said, ‘This is what I want all of your writing to be like.’”

That was all it took and Cosby was off and running, even faster than he did as a champion track star. He gave into the tug he had been feeling for years toward standup comedy and, by 1963, he was on The Tonight Show, with an appearance that got him the first of what would prove to be many bestselling comedy albums.

“There were other black comedians at the time and they concentrated on how different they were from the white people they were playing to. That wasn’t my strategy. If you had the same problems with kids, or a job or a car that I did, then you’d identify with me. And then, what do you know? You were agreeing with a black man.”

The biggest change in Cosby’s life happened when he made I Spy, the comedy-espionage series that lasted three successful seasons on TV, from 1965 to 1968. Cosby played Robert Culp’s sidekick and Cosby’s colour was never really an issue (except for some of the southern TV stations that banned the series.)

“Why was it so special? Because that show never played my colour as a negative. It wasn’t just that you saw my character with this white man. They saw two guys who loved each other. Two guys who were super, super friends. They got mad at each other, but they loved each other and you’d better not try to go up against them.”

When Cosby was in charge of his own sitcom, as he was on The Cosby Show, which aired from 1984 to 1992 and remains the most successful comedy series in the history of television, he took this attitude about the black man even further.

“We eliminated those racist characters who would come into black shows, saying, ‘I don’t like you people,’ and then we’d have to spend the rest of the show answering his stupid hateful objections. Sure, my characters had problems, but they were our problems, not problems that other people loaded onto us.”

And those are the values Cosby has based his career on. Even now, he keeps shows like the one he’s bringing to Fallsview nice and simple.

“There’s a table. There’s a chair. I don’t stand anymore because I discovered about 35 years ago that everybody else is sitting down, so I’m going to sit, too. I’ve discovered that it’s a comfortable look for the patrons.

“Karl Malden was a good friend of mine and he said, ‘You draw the people to you,’ and I guess that’s what I do. In all of my career, the style is still the same and that is of a friend, just sitting and talking.”

FIVE FAVE PROJECTS

I SPY

“When they first pitched the show to NBC, they said, ‘It’s about a tennis bum who works for the CIA and his coach is his cover and they’re gonna travel all over the world. But the second guy’s a Negro.’ And the head of NBC said, ‘What’s the problem?’”

FAT ALBERT

“It’s about the importance of having friends and being true to them and being true to yourself. Kids learn that and they’ve got it made.”

THE COSBY SHOW

“We were a family on and off camera and that means that sometimes we might fight. But we fought because we knew we had something special and wanted to keep it that way.”

LET’S DO IT AGAIN

“Sidney (Poitier) and I were just trying to make some movies with black faces in them that were a lot of fun and not full of hookers and drug dealers.”

MAN AND BOY

“I loved that movie because it told the simple story of people trying to cover or clear the hurdles that others have out there for them.”

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